Spycraft - Melton [249]
TSS bought a hundred Stanhope lenses in the early 1950s from a novelty company only to discover that they came preloaded with sexy pinup photos of American starlets. The potentially offensive images were re-movedbefore the viewer was issued to agents and the lens required no further modification. The tiny size of the bullet lens enabled it to be readily concealed and transported inside a cigarette or bottle of ink, or sewn into the seam of a jacket or dress. One case officer carried the lens in the corner of his eye. Operationally the bullet lens was so small that the care and skill required to position the dot and view the message made it unpopular with agents.
The Stanhope lens, shown against a penny, was one type of microdot reader issued by OTS.
Despite its deficiencies, the bullet lens proved invaluable for some operations. In 1969, the CIA recruited a middle-aged Cantonese-speaking woman to serve as a courier into southern China. The courier, who lived in Hong Kong, had immediate family members living in Canton whom she partially supported by her modest jade and semiprecious stones shop. Among her family members was a first cousin, also a CIA asset, with connections to a prodemocracy intellectual group that produced antigovernment publications and leaflets. The CIA was supporting the effort as a covert action and used microdots embedded in personal letters and postcards as the primary means of covert communication. When the agent lost the last of his microdot readers, the covcom link collapsed.
The case officer appealed to the courier to take several new bullet lens readers, each approximately the size of grain of rice, to her cousin. Recognizing that border checks for anyone entering China were intense, with pat downs and body cavity searches common, the case officer suggested the lens be embedded into the gauze of a Band-Aid that covered an active sore on the courier’s foot.
The proposal was met with scorn. From the agent’s perspective, the concealment was far too dangerous because the hard lens might be felt through the gauze. If discovered, the penalty would be severe. The agent agreed to take one of the lenses but said she would think of a much better concealment by their next meeting.
A week later, as the two were meeting, the agent unexpectedly dumped on the table a catty (680 grams) of dried fish, each fish about the size of a small minnow. The tabletop was covered with dozens of little fish.
“Find it,” she ordered the case officer.
“What?” he replied.
“The lens is with the fish, you find it.” Her tone was not amused.
The case officer looked at the fish. All were the same, dried, and some nearly translucent. He picked up several and examined. There was no way he could even imagine where the lens might be.
“I can’t.”
The agent began picking up fish and rubbing each between her fingers.
After handling several, she announced, “Here it is.” She peeled off the dry skin and tore open the fish. Out popped the lens.
The lens had been inserted through the mouth into the belly of fish. The expandable cavity was long and large enough to hold the lens but the lens itself was not so thick as to distort the fish’s appearance.
“This will be a lot safer than your Band-Aid. They will never inspect these fish which are like what everyone takes into China,” the courier asserted.
The case officer could only agree and thought of lyrics from the musical The King and I: “When you become a teacher, by your students you’ll be taught.” In this instance, however, when you become a case officer, by your asset you will be taught.
The operation was successful and the lens reached the agent as planned.
TSD produced a more user-friendly microdot viewer, the “114 Reader,” that